Want a chill exit from IB

Looking at exits from IB after a year and not really interested in the traditional PE exit. My main priorities are better work life balance(in terms of # of hours but also having a predictable schedule) and the goal would be low $100k comp if that is realistic. No real issues at my current firm but definitely realized I'm not as career focused and don't want to grind for years since most traditional exits can continue being pretty intense too. Would corp dev be what I'm looking for, some other types of "corporate" job titles, or in some other direction? Appreciate any advice.

 

I agree, looked up the chain and realized quickly how I didn't desire to have the lives of my senior people at all. I'm sure they have plenty of money and nice houses or whatever, but many of them were still in the office late at night even with families. I don't have that level of drive and just want to make decent money and have time to enjoy it. 

 

It’s just not healthy. Not even about time to enjoy for me. Humans were not designed to live such stationary lives indoors under fluorescent lights all day. Guarantee you those South American old ass dudes drinking cheap beer and smoking cigs in the sun everyday are way healthier than those type-A banking seniors who squeeze in cross fit, peletons, lifting, and sweetgreen salads everyday trying to maximize the efficiency of every hour they have. It’s just our human biology that’s all. 

 

Don't work in corpdev so cannot comment on it. Hopefully someone else can chime in regarding lifestyle and comp. $100K is really easy to clear after an investment banking stint. Maybe also consider:

1) LO AM: Around 50 hours a week without weekends. Interesting work and no busy work. Compensation is marginally less than IB but scales significantly.

2) Tech/startup: great culture and ability to wear many hats. Comp should be over $100K and equity potential

 

Thought the startup route would be something interesting, but not sure if my view of startups is too glamorized from reality, esp with comp dealing with equity. Haven't looked much into AM other than one very competitive program I had tried to get out of college (had solid comp + hours even at the most junior level) but unfortunately didn't move forward. 

 

Corp Dev guy here. Can confirm that life style is not bad at all, there are weeks I probably clock 10 hours of actual work but on the flip side weeks I definitely clock closer to 80. Comp is solid I'm an analyst at around 125k. Still get to work with a lot of smart people and you get awesome exposure to the C-suite and other Senior Leadership.

 

Market is HOT right now. I've had so many older peers from my BO days leave to make 100-125k+ in traditional corp fin budgeting / forecasting roles.

Corp dev varies a ton but honestly have heard good anecdotes from FAANG contacts that they don't really work a ton (MSFT doesn't need to go around buying companies they're a powerhouse at tech R&D already). All in manager comp will probably be north of $200k with RSUs and even if you land at a senior associate role out of IBD you can probably hit manager relatively quickly.

I think about leaving my non tech CD role almost weekly to get a nice comp raise and lesser workload in FAANG but right now I'm still soaking in all the deal activity and am learning a ton.

 

Don't work in corpdev so cannot comment on it. Hopefully someone else can chime in regarding lifestyle and comp. $100K is really easy to clear after an investment banking stint. Maybe also consider:

1) LO AM: Around 50 hours a week without weekends. Interesting work and no busy work. Compensation is marginally less than IB but scales significantly.

2) Tech/startup: great culture and ability to wear many hats. Comp should be over $100K and equity potential

Finance at a startup is not a chill experience. If your startup is high growth expect to work at least 60 hours a week, often more. I am currently a Finance Manager at a start up.

Array
 

Getting into LO AM from IB is not the easiest thing to do. Not impossible but for those who want to stay in finance but do a job with much lower hours, LO AM is THE exit. My rec if you do want to do it is to try to find a firm in NYC. It's kind of weird but my headhunters have passed on my resume (work at a top LO) to other AMs, they've usually jumped on it -- except for certain LO firms in NYC. Those firms really want to get ex-bankers to grind work out of them. So you won't get the ~50hr weeks at these firms but you'll at least get the 60-65hrs which is still much better than ~75-80hrs as a banker 

 

Moved from IB to LO AM and it’s blown past all of my expectations. I can barely even believe the job exists. Usually 50 hours a week +/- 5. The people are absolutely incredible, the culture is great, the work is stimulating (+ no busy work). The pay is marginally lower, but scales pretty quickly and can easily exceed banking. 

 

Work at a top LO as well and can say that if you want WLB, LO is incredible as is company culture. Only thing to mention is that many of the top LOs do not have a presence in NYC at all, and those that focus their staff in NYC don't usually have the same level of performance/culture/prominence as those outside of NYC (Eaton Vance and BNY are solid, but they're not Fidelity). If you want to live in a bigger city, Boston and Newport Beach have definitely emerged as smaller hubs for this that beat out other cities like Baltimore or Kansas City. 

 

Commercial real estate at the some of the life cos or Private credit at life cos great lifestyle and Como is pretty good 40-50 hours

 

There are very few seats in LO AM and turnover is really low. People don’t leave given the comp, WLB and fairly stimulating work. You have to have a passion for investing though, otherwise you still probably won’t enjoy it. The hours might be light relative to other finance jobs and the comp, but still long relative to most traditional corporate jobs. 
 

I wouldn’t worry too much about the tier of your bank. Recruiting is far less structured given the small class sizes and infrequent openings. 

 

Consider FP&A or strategic finance at an F100.  Where I work, our senior analysts clear over 100K in cash, we're in a cheap part of the country, and you rarely work more than 40 hours / week (often less).  Not sure where you could come in exactly with your IB background, but if you can swing a manager title, you'll look at 150+ TC.

 

Forgot to add in my original post, but I also don't really want to be in a VHCOL area long term, so a cheaper city would not just be ok but maybe even preferable for me, especially to make the lower salaries go a lot farther. Manager sounds pretty high though? Not sure of the naming of different levels but expected to be the equivalent of an analyst if I'm only one year out and maybe an associate type level if after 2 years. 

 

I'm a strategic finance SA at a F500 firm in a MCOL area and I'll clear just north of $100 in cash base (bonus TBD) while participating in a great ESPP program...All in Y1 comp likely ~$120 -- ~$130, next promo grants stock based comp so I'd expect a decently meaningful bump (this would be an L4 role). I'll very rarely ever spend <40hrs per week but I'll also very rarely be pulling more than 60, I'd bet I average between 50 and 55. The work is very interesting and I get the best of both worlds of not being a client slave but also having pretty engaging and cerebral work.

 

Corp dev associate here. I think if you can land on a good active team (not all corp dev roles end up the same), it's a great relatively chill exit. Schedule is predictable and only truly busy period is around closing. Even then, nothing bad. There's a lot of potential to do good work and get front-line deal reps. Low 100k is a reasonable expectation. Feel I'm paid pretty darn well for my lifestyle. 

One thing I will caution that could just be personal experience... it can be "too chill." I'm in the process of thinking about + looking for the next step as I have, in part, reached a ceiling in my current role, but also just think I have more potential that isn't being used. Think I would look back with regret if I just did this for the rest of my life and didn't take a bigger swing of the bat

TLDR, if you want a little break but still be engaged in doing deals, corp dev is solid. W/L balance is good enough that you will have plenty of time to work on a side hustle / other pursuits if you decide it isn't for you.

 

From what I've read yeah the progression can be very slow and might require job hopping to progress in terms of title since it'll depend on if the ppl above you leave for there to be space for your promotion. I can see myself enjoying having the short bursts and then a relatively "too chill" time around that. Didn't see myself in "high finance" because I don't want career to take over my life for the foreseeable future but I can see how you don't want to be bored al the time either. Great suggestion that it could be a "break" and then go back into something more intense if desired. Do you have any suggestions on going about the recruiting process? It seems like theres no structured process and on an "as needed" basis for hiring. Also have heard very varied experiences in terms of comp, lifestyle, and culture and definitely want to take all of those into account during the process too. I'm used to fairly structured processes for internships and then IB of course so I've set up linkedin alerts to see what the general market is like for openings but not much else. 

 

Mrdistatty had a few questions for you:

1) How did you figure out that the hours are pretty good? Feels like M&A can be such a mixed bag just by nature of M&A

2) How active is your company?

3) What is the progression like?

 

I spent my early twenties obsessing about getting into IB. When I finally got there, I realized the job was awful and plotted my exit almost immediately.

I eventually transitioned over to Corp Dev and I couldn’t be happier. Work is immensely more interesting which was a big bonus for me. Plus the hours in most roles are quite reasonable - typically 35-40 hours and highly predictable.

Finally, once you work your way up the comp can be quite attractive, with all-in base/bonus/equity potential in the seven figures. Just like anything you’ll want to find your niche, but for me I couldn’t be happier in PE-backed Corp Dev.

 

Basically I decided I was done with IB, researched exit options, and decided Corp Dev was the best fit for me. A recruiter reached out to me about a role that is the same IB sector I was in and it just went from there.

 

All-in annual comp is around $1.3-1.5M including estimated equity. After several years in CF I now lead my group, so I wouldn’t expect comp to go up much more than this unless I level up to a CEO role in the future, but not sure I even want to deal with all the drama that comes with that seat.
 

I love my role now and I have a feeling more comp would come with a greater workload / less autonomy which is not an attractive trade off to me.

 

Be careful- you might think you want that but really don’t. For example, 100 hours in banking to 70 hour week HF job might be right for you. 
 

just been in your shoes before where the super long hours made me artificially question how “career driven” I was 
 

 

I saw a few mentions above about LO AM. Currently working in that space in a LCOL city. I make roughly what I made at a well known MM (Jeff/Roth/GHL) at my current shop, working half the hours and doing work that is genuinely value accretive and impactful to those around me. I would argue that the space is the best in finance for comp vs. hours worked and the best part is that LO companies love hiring people with IB experience looking for a lifestyle shift. 

To those saying it's a super competitive place to enter: you're right. It's a hard space to get, I can agree. However, I think that the difficulty of entering the space is somewhat overblown. If you have a deep passion for markets and investing, cast a wide net of applications, and know how to properly interview (specific LO AM companies are looking for certain responses sometimes) you'll be able to get yourself a spot. 

If you want some suggestions of what kinds of roles in LO AM can be attained, feel free to send me a DM. Roles like Associate Analyst are often filled by IB analysts, but they do not open very often.

 

Corporate Finance is the way to go if you're looking to maximize comp, hours, and trajectory. I think the key is joining an organization with a culture that you mesh which allows you to thrive. It's a lot easier to ingrain yourself in the company and slowly, but steadily, climb the ladder when you enjoy the people you're working with/for.

 

A solid PE-backed portco is not a bad route.

The key, in my opinion, is to find a GOOD company, a healthy company, a somewhat sophisticated company and one that has a future.  You can work up to a Director/VP level and make $200,000-$250,000 cash comp plus whatever your equity is worth (could be zero, could be $2mm, could be somewhere in between - this is why it's important to try to find a quality company with quality people and quality processes).

Let's say you do that for 5 years and on average make $200k/yr.  Then your equity is worth $600k.  So you averaged ~$320k/yr and had a very nice work life balance, NOT BAD!  (despite what people say on here)

You are then in a position to do it over again at a higher level (could start at VP and end up at SVP or CFO or something) -- and you are given more equity this time.  So if that company is successful, maybe you were there for 7 years and makd an average $225k/yr and get paid $1.5mm on monetization -- works out to an average ~$440k/yr, again not bad despite what people say on here.

 

I wouldn’t classify PE Portco jobs as chill exits. Those sponsors need to hit those ROIs and aren’t handing out million dollar equity packages for 30 hour work weeks. 

"I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people."
 

Of course not.  But here's a few thoughts:

-Let's not confuse hours worked with value added, that's investment banking speak

-A normal and flexible 40-50 hour work week is normal, not to say there aren't sprints

-How do I know?  I'm doing it right now

 

Can you comment on pay and progression for someone with 5-6 years of IB experience and is a 3rd year associate straight from undergrad? I imagine it is probably Manager at minimum and Director at high end. 

 

I think you're probably on it.  I think "Manager" and "Director" are pretty similar at a PE portco (unless we're talking about a huge company).  So start there at Manager/Director, then, depending on performance, perhaps a promotion to VP after 2-3 years.

 

Wanted to second all the comments about working for a PE portfolio company. It is a great mix of interesting work / deals, WLB and comp. Do I miss the large IB bonuses sure but I average about 40 hours of work a week and rarely work Friday afternoons unless we have a live deal going on.

The career trajectory is great as well. This is especially true if you can find a PE firm that has a reputation for "reinvesting" in high performing talent by moving them to another port co within their portfolio after exit.

 

In my experience most of the PE backed CD roles come through recruiters. Similar to buyside recruiting PE firms hire recruiting firms to work on CD opportunities for portfolio companies. The process is less structured as roles are on as need basis vs. a typical cycle.

Some of the national recruiting firms I have received inbounds from are - Variner, Brainworks, Permanent Solutions Group. I am in a tier 2/3 city and sometimes the local finance recruiters will have decent CD roles.

In terms of LinkedIn searches, I would start with "PE backed Corporate Development" or "Sponsor backed". 

 

I can provide my background for context:

School: HYPS

First Job: Analytics Role at a GS/JPM/MS 

Primarily worked on analytics projects for the CorpDev team, but also worked on some projects within different divisions.

Was planning to leave after making an associate this winter, but had a headhunter reach out to me for a role at the end of August.  I think I went through ~12 total interviews over 3 rounds, but nothing really technical.  They more just dug deep into the type of work I had done as well as some case interviews to assess my thinking style.  Initial offer was 125+15 and relocation but managed to negotiate up to 130+20 and full remote (with some travel)

This offer is definitely above market.  Can speak more specifically about my current (soon to be former) role and comp etc if you pm me.

 

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